1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to people rescue equipment, and in particular, to an apparatus designed to rescue people in emergency, mainly for lowering people from top floors of high rise buildings in case of fire and other emergency.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of lifesaving emergency devices are known. One example is a lifesaving device designed for receiving people jumping or falling from high altitude. This receiving device comprises a pneumatic chamber that includes flexible tubing that forms the top and bottom base areas covered with a flexible shell (including horizontal absorbing membrane) and joined by vertical tubes (RU Patent No. 2150980, 1999). The disadvantage of this device is that the volume of the frame takes up a considerable part of the total capacity size of the receiving chamber.
Another conventional example is a personal emergency device for lowering of people from high-rise buildings. This device is a knapsack fastened to a back of an escaping person. The device has an intermediate membrane with a folded parachute inside. The parachute has inflatable chambers intended for formation of a base of pneumatic carcass. The chambers create an elastic skirt that forms a cone shapes deceleration shield, and a landing basket also formed by the inflatable chambers (RU published application No. 2003124165/12, Aug. 5, 2003). The disadvantage of this device is its large size, heavy weight and low efficiency.
Yet another example is a personal emergency device for lowering people from high-rise buildings, comprising a knapsack equipped with a fastener for fixing it to a back of a rescued person. The knapsack has an intermediate membrane with a folded parachute and inflatable chambers. The chambers form a base of pneumatic carcass. The chambers create an elastic skirt that forms a cone shaped deceleration shield.
A landing basket is also formed by the inflatable chambers. A parachute opening assembly includes a gas source attached to the knapsack and interconnected with the inflatable chambers via flexible elastic gas pipes and inflatable chambers for formation of a landing basket. The inflatable chambers of the landing basket are designed in the form of a bottom base and upright columns.
The columns are connected with the bottom base of the pneumatic frame. Thus, the landing basket has several vertical and horizontal walls and top and bottom separating walls forming cavities. The lower separating wall has holes, and the top separating wall is fastened to the bottom base of the pneumatic frame and with the knapsack (RU Patent No. 2288758, 2006). A disadvantage of this device is its large size, heavy weight and low efficiency.
Yet another example of a personal emergency device for lowering people from high-rise buildings comprises a knapsack provided with a fastener for fixing it to a back of a rescued person. Part of the knapsack is a supporting element that contains an inflatable frame and a toroidal chamber inflatable by a gas generator and connected to inflatable shafts, which are connected to the upper toroidal chamber of a cylindrical inflatable structure.
The structure is formed by toroidal inflatable chambers placed on top of each other (each chamber has a smaller diameter). Thus, a conical deceleration shield is formed. The top inflatable toroidal chamber of a smaller diameter is fixed to the supporting element of the knapsack. The cylindrical chamber is inflated to the atmospheric pressure and has calibration holes for releasing an excessive pressure created by an external stress at the moment of hitting the ground. This chamber is placed under the supporting element to which the rescued person is fastened.
The person is placed in the cavity formed by the cylindrical arrangement of inflatable toroidal chambers of the smaller diameter and the toroidal chambers of the larger diameter. The supporting element of the knapsack is designed in the form of an anatomic cradle conformed to the form of a back of a person. It is fixed to the top inflatable toroidal chamber of a smaller diameter by strips. A gas generator for inflatable toroidal chamber is designed in the form of cold gas generators. It is placed in the cavity of the inflatable toroidal chamber. At least in one of the shafts has the gas generator installed in it. The gas generator connects two chambers isolated from other chambers and shafts (RU No. 66206, published in 2007).
A disadvantage of this device is that it has a large size, is heavy and has low efficiency in terms of energy dissipation of the system with the person at a moment of landing. This solution is taken as a prototype that the present invention improves upon. Accordingly, there is a need for a lightweight efficient apparatus for rescuing people from high rise buildings in case of an emergency.